The sport of paintball generally involves individuals or teams armed with pneumatic launchers (“guns” or “markers”) that shoot pellets filled with paint or dye (“paintballs”). A variety of different formats of play exist and the rules of play are usually a function of the particular format, but the objective usually involves the firing of paintballs at other individuals, teams or targets. The score of each game is usually a function of how many opposing individual(s) or target(s) a team or individual can hit with one or more paintballs, or of how many paintballs a team or individual can successfully impact with the predefined opponent(s) or target(s).
Because paintballs are fragile and intended to break upon impacting a target, they can inadvertently break in the paintball marker, paintball loader, or in the barrel of the paintball marker. This premature breakage can be caused by a number of events or conditions, including a paintball that is too large or small for a marker barrel or other equipment, a paintball that is improperly seated in the marker chamber upon firing, climate conditions, or manufacturing defects in the paintball or equipment. This premature breakage of a paintball is often referred to as “chopping,” a “chopped ball,” or a “barrel break.” When a paintball is chopped, a quantity of paint or dye that was contained within the paintball coats internal areas of the paintball marker, usually including but not necessarily limited to the marker's barrel. This unwanted coating of paint or dye interferes with the finely-tuned ballistics or other firing or performance characteristics of the paintball marker and can result in inaccurate shots or even total equipment failure.
Over the past number of years, many paintball devices have been invented which reduce the number of chopped balls. The most effective invention has been a set of break-beam sensors which are located in the breech of the paintball marker and automatically abort the firing sequence of the paintball marker should the sensor detect an improperly chambered paintball. Although improvements such as this have reduced the frequency of chopped balls, the problem has yet to be eliminated.
Once a paintball is chopped or otherwise fails within the marker or barrel, it is imperative that the user clean the equipment to prevent further breakage or equipment failure. The player can use a squeegee to remove the paint or dye from the barrel. Swabs are similarly available for the cleaning of a barrel (e.g. FIGS. 1-2). Available swabs consists of two rods R connected with a flexible connector C. Such swabs have a plurality of rods so the player may fold the swab to place it on his person; the folding of a swab reduces the overall length of the swab and increases player comfort when running, jumping, or sliding with the swab in a pocket, for example. The distal ends of the rods are covered in an absorbent substance A. When a chopped ball occurs, the player unfolds his swab, sticks it into the barrel, and subsequently removes the swab. Because of physical contact between the paintball barrel and the swab, a quantity of unwanted paint or dye is absorbed or otherwise pulled out or ejected from the barrel. Although a significant amount of paint or dye is removed by this process, a quantity usually still remains which can interfere with the firing, ballistics or other performance characteristic(s) of the paintballs and/or the marker. Further, the connection between the two rods of a swab frequently fails and allows the two rods to separate, thus rendering the swab less useful or unusable.
A larger version of these swabs is often used to clean out paintball pods (i.e. containers, commonly cylindrical, used to carry extra paintballs during play) that have been contaminated by a paintball that has broken. These larger swabs are practically identical in form and function to the swabs discussed above, but the larger swabs are used to mitigate paintball breakage in other paintball equipment and not breakage in the paintball marker.
However, problems with existing swabs are common. Among such problems associated with existing implements are fatigue on a connecting piece after folding several times. The fatigue can result in weakness, separation or breakage of the connecting piece. Existing products tend to be susceptible to kinking when being inserted into a device to be cleaned. Further, the product can come apart, e.g. by the connecting piece failing or a rod portion pulling out of the connecting piece, when the product is pulled to remove it from the paintball device.